


Extroadinary Measures

by pokemonfan224



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Childhood Trauma, Drugs, Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, Police, Police Brutality, Suicidal Tendencies, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28086387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pokemonfan224/pseuds/pokemonfan224
Summary: Diego has always looked out for Klaus after leaving the academy.He just didn't expect to find him standing on the edge of the bridge.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Eudora Patch, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 158





	Extroadinary Measures

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Please read the tags and don't read if it makes you uncomfortable

Diego thought that after leaving the Academy, life will fall into place. He left shy of his - their - 18th birthday and hasn’t looked back since. And then he was forcefully shoved into the real world, the real world where you need to have money and a roof above your head, the real world where you need a job to do anything. He didn’t have a lot of skills that could qualify him into getting a job.

He didn’t have the right people skills, he didn’t know the social norms of everyday life and had no previous work experience. He knew how to fight, he knew how to throw knives, he could speak 7 languages for crying out loud and he definitely wasn’t dumb by any means. He just didn’t have what it takes. 

The police academy was different. There he could put his skills to use, the rigorous training he was raised on would be a benefit, the ability to help keep the streets safe is something he’s used to doing. 

Except it wasn’t that. 

He’d applied under a fake name, Diego Harris, (if he wanted he could have applied as Diego Hargreeves considering Diego isn’t his legal name and was more of a show name so the public wouldn’t be angry at his real name but he wanted to separate his old life from the new one) so no one knew he was an Umbrella Kid. Most people thought he was up himself considering how he took orders and did all the training and exams the ‘correct’ way. They didn’t like his race and he knew they called him slurs behind his back. 

The only good thing about the police academy was Eudora Patch. Eudora who went by Patch to everyone but him, Eudora who was the first girl that he ever really had interaction with (his sisters and mother do NOT count), the first girl that he could possibly see something with. He’s had crushes before, sometimes there’d be a cute girl in the crowd at one of their press interviews and sometimes Allison would leave her Teen Girl magazines out and Klaus would steal them and Diego would then steal from him. But this was different because Eudora actually liked him back. 

Except it didn’t work out. 

Diego started getting angry more often, his father appearing on the news and he couldn’t say shit about it. How it took his father a whole year to announce that The Kraken has left the Umbrella Academy. His co-workers that he despised kept talking out of their ass about the Academy, about his siblings, how it was all a hoax and how the kids were brainwashed into thinking they had powers. He kept lashing out at people, lashing out at Eudora because he didn’t know how to control his feelings. He was never taught that. 

The final straw was when he was kicked out of the police academy, only two weeks before the graduation ceremony where no one would cheer for him. Eudora broke up with him a month later.

So now he’s 23, living in the boiler room of a gym where he sweeps the floors and does anything else needed for a bit of cash and a roof above his head with the occasional boxing match when needed. It’s how he found himself with a police radio that he bought from some military shop that gave them out like candy. He knew all the codes, memorised every single one of them within the first week of the police academy even though it wasn’t needed then. His mother always said he had the best memory. 

He knows Klaus left the Academy a year after he did, there were tabloids about it. ‘The Unravelling of The Seance’, ‘Is It Just Me or Is The Seance Totally Overrated’ and Diego’s least favourite ‘The Nauseating Truth About The Seance’ all with pictures of his brother in clubs, passed out on the side of the street, strung out on drugs or making out with strangers. And he loves his brother, Klaus was probably his best friend in the Academy but Klaus makes stupid decisions and refuses to train his power and gets drunk and high in public and it doesn’t seem like Klaus even cares. 

And Diego sits there. He sits there every fucking night, listening in on his police radio for the codes of overdoses, drug dealings, possession, public intoxication and fucking solicitation because he has no idea how Klaus can keep paying for this lifestyle. He checks the alleys and the clubs, checks the obituaries in the paper just in case, keeps an eye out on the arrests for those codes if the description even slightly resembles Klaus and even checks in with nearby hospitals and rehab centres just on the rare chance he’s changing his habits. 

It happens on a Thursday night. 

He’s making dinner which is not really dinner but more of a snack because he hasn’t had time to buy new groceries - which was a whole other story that he didn’t know what to do when he had to do it the first time - when his radio crackles to life. He can hear a voice call out for a possible 10-56A down at the Levington Bridge. 11-41 for an ambulance. 10-51 the subject is drunk and a probable 212 of the use of illegal drugs. Diego already has his shoes on and is throwing a jacket on and grabbing a few extra knives. He grabs the radio and listens to the officer say how the subject is standing on the outside edge of the bridge, clearly intoxicated and talking to the air. Diego himself breaks many road rules but he doesn’t care. All he knows is that this guy sounds exactly like Klaus and he’ll be damned if he loses another brother. 

He pulls up to bridge in record time, there are already a few police vehicles and an ambulance at the scene, the road blocked off to avoid traffic and a large gathering of people crowded along the barriers like it’s a fucking performance show of someone doing a backflip of the high diving board. And Diego’s angry and he shoves his way through the crowd, elbowing the bystanders until he reaches the front and ducks under the yellow tape. People yell at him to get back behind the tape but he doesn’t care, he can hear the guy now and it is Klaus, he’d recognise that yell anywhere.

Someone grabs his arm and tugs him back hard, he goes for a swing before realising it’s Eudora and she’s angry at him for disrupting another one of her crime scenes. It’s not her fault that she doesn’t know the reason why he’s here but he’s scared and angry himself. 

“You can’t be here, Diego” she says sternly “Get back behind the tape or I’ll have to arrest you”

He’s so angry he can’t talk, he knows he’ll stutter like hell and Eudora probably wouldn’t be able to understand him. So he looks her in the eyes and points to where all the commotion is. She doesn’t seem to understand him as she just frowns harder so Diego looks at her one last time before yanking his arm out of her grip and running towards his brother. 

Eudora is shouting after him and more officers join in but he doesn’t care. Klaus is standing on the bridge, as skinny as ever and in revealing clothes. He’s angled so that he’s facing forward but can still turn his head enough to speak to someone behind him. 

“KLAUS” Diego yells as loud as he can “KLAUS YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO ME”

He gets cut off by someone tackling him to the ground, face pressed down on the road. He’s learnt how to get out of these situations but it’s going out of his head as panic settles over him. Someone’s holding his arms behind his back, another on his legs and people are walking towards Klaus to talk to him.

“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH HIM” Diego yells “DON’T T-T-TOUCH H-H-HIM”

They don’t listen to him, like they never fucking do because they walk closer and Klaus looks over looking panicked and frightened and Diego sees he has a black eye and a split lip. 

“KLAUS” Diego screams as loud as he can and something seems to connect with Klaus because he startles and looks past the officers near him with one eye widening and the other staying closed. “YOU G-GOT-GOTTA L-LISTEN TO M-ME” 

“FUCK OFF” Klaus shouts back “LEAVE ME ALONE, DIEGO”

“YOU K-KNOW I CAN’T” he yells “I CAN’T L-LOSE YOU”

He knows Eudora is listening, knows that he’s going to blow his cover of his old life as a childhood superhero but he doesn’t care. 

“I CAN’T LIVE LIKE THIS ANYMORE” Klaus shouts “I CAN’T”

“LIVE WITH ME, FUCK, K-K-KLAUS YOU CAN LIVE WITH ME P-PLEASE JUST LIST-LISTEN TO M-ME”

“THEY’RE ALWAYS HERE, DRUGS DON’T WORK ANYMORE” Klaus cries, he shuffles his feet and Diego’s heart leaps into his throat. “I CAN’T GET RID OF THEM”

“FUCK” Diego sturggles against the ground, surprised no one has put handcuffs on him yet “KLAUS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER, I N-NEED YOU, PLEASE F-F-FUCK, LISTEN TO ME”

“I CAN’T GO BACK, DEE” he screams back “I CAN’T GO BACK TO HIM”

“THEN COME BACK TO ME, FUCK KLAUS FUCK THE OLD ASSHOLE, WE DON’T NEED HIM”

“I CAN’T” Klaus cries. He turns away and starts chanting the words over and over. He’s shaking and Diego can see the shakes from where he’s pressed against the road. Eudora and all the other officers are watching the conversation between the vigilante and the junkee. Klaus is getting trapped in his own head again, something that would happen after special training, when he’d try to find Five after he disappeared, when Ben died. 

“KLAUS” Diego tries again, struggling against the people holding him down. “BUDDY YOU GOTTA LISTEN TO ME, I NEED YOU TO COME BACK OVER HERE”

“I can’t” 

“YOU CAN, YOU CAN, SHIT KLAUS, I CAN’T LOSE ANOTHER BROTHER”

Klaus looks at him, he looks a mess and Diego doesn’t look much better. Diego might be crying but he isn’t sure but Klaus is. 

“I NEED YOU, YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND, MAN, I CAN’T BE HERE WITHOUT Y-YOU” 

Klaus seems to be listening to someone that isn’t him but whichever ghost is talking to him seems to be getting through. Diego thrashes in his position as Klaus carefully turns around. He’s shaking, knobbly knees banging together and hands gripping the rails. Officers start moving towards him and fuck, have they not been taught ettiquette on how to approach someone in this state of mind?

“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH HIM” Diego screams but his sentence is cut off with a loud scream. The officer closest to Klaus had grabbed him on the shoulder and in Klaus’ panic, he had yanked his arm back so hard that it threw him off balance. Diego watched as Klaus disappeared from view and into the waters below. 

Diego screamed, he screamed as loud as he could and used up all the strength to get out of this hold. Running on pure adrenaline, he got off the ground and sprinted towards the railing. He could hear Eudora yell at him to come back, that people were already heading down to the river banks to get him out but Diego didn’t care. He ducked and shoved the people trying to stop him and before he could stop and think for a moment, Diego leapt over the railing and fell down after his brother. 

Diego knew Klaus could swim, in fact, Klaus was probably the fastest swimmer out of all of them. But he also knew that Klaus was intoxicated, probably on some kind of drug and was already distressed so his swimming abilities were not in his favour. Diego can swim, he  
s strong and he can hold his breath underwater for as long as he needs. Technically, he didn’t even need to breathe on land but that freaks people out and he wanted to fit in with the real world. 

The water is cold and dark, he can’t see Klaus underwater but he knows he’s down in the murky water. Diego ducks under the water, using all his strength to find some kind of sign that he was swimming in the right direction. His jacket is getting caught on the branches that are caught in the water and he shrugs out of it to avoid it holding him back. He feels like he’s been looking for hours but he knows it hasn’t been that long. Hopes it hasn’t been that long. 

His hand touches something solid and feeling around just to be sure, he finds himself pressing his hands over what feels like a body. He prays to every god he can think of that it’s Klaus and not someone else’s body and tugs it into one of his arms. He’s heavy and a deadweight but Diego perseveres and kicks harder than he’s ever kicked in his life and swam faster than he’s ever done. 

He breaks above the surface of the water with nothing more than a small gasp and quickly looks to check if the body he’s holding is actually his brother. He could cry when he looks down and sees the familiar curly hair, flattened from the water and maybe he is crying but he can’t tell. Someone throws a life preserver at them and Diego grabs on and holds onto Klaus with an iron grip so that they can be pulled onto the banks. 

Klaus’ head is bleeding sluggishly, a wound on his head that leaves watery red streaks down his face and lies on top of the water. Diego finds himself burying his face in the wet hair, just wanting to feel as close to his brother as he could. 

He drags Klaus the rest of the way onto the floor once his feet could touch the ground and immediately pumps on his chest. He’d been trained in first aid many times, at both academies, and would often help Mom in the infirmary when needed. It was a skill they all needed to know at a young age. 

Klaus isn’t breathing. 

He isn’t fucking breathing.

Diego’s the one who shouldn’t be breathing not Klaus. Not his brother who is the same age but is most definitely his younger brother. 

Diego can faintly hear people around him talk to him, telling him to stop giving this guy CPR and to let the EMT’s do their work but Diego ignores them. 

Eudora keeps trying to pull him away to get his own medical treatment. Much later he finds that he had been underwater for nearly half an hour. There was no way either of them could have survived but they somehow did. 

Diego shouts at the people around him to fuck off. He’s aware of the people talking. Someone pointed out Klaus’ tattoo and then a minute later someone sees Diego’s. 

Klaus still isn’t breathing but Diego keeps pushing and breathing for him. Turns Klaus on his side to get some excess water out and keeps going. He’ll dig his fingers down Klaus’ throat to stop the blockage if needed. 

20 minutes later, Diego is pulled away. It takes 4 people to drag him away because he kept going after Klaus was declared dead. He didn’t believe it, he couldn’t believe it. He won’t believe it. He’ll be the one who has to tell his siblings they lost another brother and he doesn’t know if he has the strength to. 

Diego’s still shouting at people to not touch him, Klaus doesn’t like people touching him when he’s panicking. Tells people to go fuck themselves when they try and move his body and when the EMT’s try and load him into a body bag. He thrashes and bites and it probably looks ridiculous to onlookers but he’s desperate. He gets out of their hold again and crawls on the muddy grass to his brother and carefully moves his body so Diego can hold him. 

He catches Eudora’s eye as he pushes his face into Klaus’ hair again. She has a whole range of emotions on her face ranging from sad to surprised and betrayal. He gets it. Diego’s arms are wrapped around Klaus’ waist with one hand resting on his upper chest. He swears he feels movement but ignores it, it was his mind playing a trick on him, the body giving one last hoorah before shutting down. 

Except it happened again. And again. And again. And suddenly Klaus was sliding out of Diego’s grip, hand reaching up to grasp at his chest, doing an ugly gasping and coughing sound. Then his eyes opened. Klaus looked around quickly, eyes darting from one spot to the next before landing on the person kneeling next to him. Klaus gave a smile that was more of a grimace, hands now clutching at Diegos. 

“Hey Dee”


End file.
